Brazilian tournament specialist books his biggest career online win
The online poker economy enjoyed an unprecedented month of major knockout tournament series, with PokerStars, GGPoker, and the Winning Poker Network all running massive online festivals in October. The PokerStars Bounty Hunter Series came to an end Tuesday, with one of poker's brightest rising stars claiming the biggest championship in the series.
Pedro “PaDiLhA SP” Padilha came out victorious in the PokerStars $530 Bounty Builder Series Main Event, topping a field of 5,581 total entries and coming away with the $259,570 first-place prize. The win gave the Brazilian Padilha, a well-accomplished tournament player both live and online, the biggest online cash of his career.
The nearly $260k first-place prize included $90,784 in bounties, with Padilha coming out on top in the biggest event of the Bounty Hunter Series. Padilha came out ahead in the heads-up battle against the United Kingdom's '.COM??LOL', who took home $197,719 for the second-place finish.
Other top finishers in the Bounty Builder Main Event included Romania's 'SickH!l' (3rd - $113,943), Russian 'GangstaZab' (4th - $94,715), and Brazil's 'santaceia' (5th - $59,519).
Bounty Hunter Series smashes $30 million guarantee
The two-week Bounty Hunter series ran Oct. 11-25 on PokerStars, with $30 million in guaranteed prize money across more than 200 events. The Main Event alone saw the prize pool go up to nearly $2.8 million, with each of the top three finishers claiming a six-figure payout.
The Main Event offered a high ($530) and low ($55) buy-in version of the tournament, and the $55 entry event resulted in the champion realizing a massive return on investment.
The low buy-in Main Event championship went to Bulgaria's 'mayanfactor' for a $95,337 grand prize. The tournament drew 32,183 total entries, pushing the prize pool to over $1.6 million.
Overall, the PokerStars Bounty Builder Series saw total prize pools end up at $36,624,556 across the more than 200 events. In a year that's seen the online poker circuit saturated with tournament opportunities, the Bounty Builder Series finished up with prize money going more than 20% over the guarantee.
Big month for bounty and PKO tournaments in the online poker realm
The $30 million guaranteed Bounty Builder Series ran as one of three major bounty and progressive knockout series available to online players in October 2020.
GGPoker offered its own bounty series across the same exact dates as the PokerStars Bounty Builder circuit. The GGPoker Bounty Hunter Series also ran Oct. 11-25, promising $40 million in guaranteed prize money across the massive 353-event series.
Not to be outdone, the Winning Poker Network is wrapping up its seven-week progressive knockout series this weekend.
The $50 million guaranteed MoMoMoPKO Series wraps up seven weeks of an all-PKO schedule with the $5 million guaranteed Venom PKO Main Event. The final two starting flights play out this weekend, with Day 1C taking place Saturday, Oct. 31, and Day 1D playing out Sunday, Nov. 1.
The survivors from the tournaments four Day 1 flights return Monday, Nov. 2, and play down to a final table. The final nine players then come back Tuesday, Nov. 3, and play down to a champion. The eventual winner of the Venom PKO Main Event will win at least $1 million.
Featured image source: Twitter
